Roland Emmerich to Direct Alien Invasion Sci-Fi Pitch EMERGENCE

Roland Emmerich‘s Anonymous was a nice break from his usual big-budget fare, but it looks like the director will be sticking with his bread-and-butter action movies. His next film, White House Down, looks to feature plenty of fun set pieces, and now the director has cast his eye on the “large scale contemporary science fiction film”, Emergence. According to Deadline, Emmerich’s production company, Centropolis Entertainment, has picked up Nic Kelman‘s pitch, which is reportedly “a new take on an alien invasion story containing hot-button science elements.” But that’s not the big news. The big news is why it might ignite a bidding war.

Hit the jump for more.

According to Deadline, “studios all over town have been beating the bushes for new IP with tent pole potential because they don’t develop like they used to, and they are beating sequels into the ground.” That’s crazy but welcome news. After seeing studios desperate enough to adapt anything and turn it into a franchise, there might be hope that studios are finally realizing they need original, fully-owned properties. Granted, if those properties are a success, they’ll get tons of sequels, but you have to start some place.

Studios also find Emmerich appealing because he brings them all the elements they consider essential: script, budget, start date, commitment to direct. Once they have these elements, they know there will be a tent-pole picture in their schedule. Emergence could also be appealing to studios because it’s reportedly in the vein of Interstellar. Kelman “holds a Bachelor of Science from MIT and a Masters of Fine Arts from Brown University”, so Emergence might “meld narrative storytelling with grounded science theory.” Personally, I believe that’s a bit of a leap concerning Emergence. While I’m all for using real science in science-fiction, Emergence is just a pitch at this point, and we don’t know how far away from science-fact Emmerich wants to take the picture.

Additionally, even though studios are eager to get Emmerich on Emergence ASAP, they might have to wait. The director could also do Singularity, Foundation, or a sequel to Independence Day as his next picture. Since they’re all sci-fi films involving outer space and/or aliens, his choice could nix the other projects on his slate since he might not want to go back-to-back within the same genre.

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